Electric-railway system



(No Model.) E

B. R. SHOVER 8E P. P. TOWNSEND.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

No. 569,432. Patented Oct. 13, A1896.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BARTON R. SIIOVER, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, AND FRANK P. TOWN SEND, OF ASBURY PARK, NEV JERSEY.

ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 569,432, dated October 13, 1896.

Application iileld September 10,1895. Serial No. 562,103. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, BARTON R. SHOVER, of Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, and FRANK P. TOWNSEND, of Asbury Park, in the county of Monmouth and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric-Railway Systems, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to electric-railway systems of the class in which the main electric wire and circuit-closing devices are located within a conduit placed in the ground between the rails or adjacent to one of the rails.

The object of this invention is to so construct the parts that the main wire and all other parts from which danger by contact would arise will be placed in a closed con duit, and, further, to provide an electric-railway system wherein the loss by leakage from the main wire will be reduced to a minimum.

The invention consists in a main wire and circuit-closers located in aclosed conduit, the said closers being closed by an electroma-gnet carried bya car to convey the current through the motor of the car.

It further consists in the construction and novel arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter described,and more particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming apart of this spccilication, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding` parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a diagrammatic view of an electric-railway system embodying oui invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section showing the system in place between the rails, and Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, A designates a conduit, of any suitable insulating material, adapted to be placed below the road-bed between the rails A, but having a portion of its top surface exposed at the surface of the roadbed, as at o. The conduit is to be made in sections of suitable length and entirely closed on all sides, excepting that manholes or handholes may be placed at intervals for convenience in making repairs; but the manholes will be provided with tight covers, so that the conduit is practically closed throughout its length.

A2 indicates a series of contact-plates secured in any desired manner to the upper portion of the conduit. As here shown they are secured by means of screw-bolts a', the upper ends of which are flush with the outer top surface of the conduit. From the contactplates A2 wires 1 extend to the main wire A3, located within the conduit.

A4indicates another series of contact-plates located in the conduit substantially on a horizontal plane with the plates A2 and alternating therewith. From the contact-plates A4 wires 2 extend to a. working rail A5, consisting of short sections made of iron or other metal and insulated one from another at the ends and attached to astring-piece a2, of wood or other suitable material, placed in the roadbed between the rails. This string-piece may be treated with any suitable material, such, for instance, as creosote, to prevent the rotting of the wood.

A" sliows movable iron contact strips or sections of suitable length insulated one from another at the ends and resting loosely on in sulating-blocks A7, secured within the conduit. The plates A2 Al andthe contact-strips Ai constitute circuit closers between the main wire A3 and a ground or return circuit 3.

The operation is as follows: A permanent magnet is to be carried by the motor on the car, and so arranged as to be slightly above the exposed top surface of the conduit, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2, and a brush, trolley, or similar device, adapted to engage with the working rail A5, has electrical connection with the motor on the car. The perman ent magnet is wound with coils which are in series with the electrical circuit of the car. The action of this magnet will be to draw a section-strip Ai into engagement with a pair of contact-plates A2 A4, thus closing the circuit from the main wire A3 through a wire l, a plate A2, a strip A, a plate A4, a wire 2 to a section of the working rail, and thence through the brush, the series coils on the magnet, and the motor on the car, and through a car-wheel to the ground-circuit 3. The additional magnetism imparted to the permanent magnet by the current passing IOO through the series coils gives the section-strip A6 better eiectrical contact with the contactplates A2 A4. As the car passes along, the contactstrips A6 will be successively elevated, and as the working rail sections are quite short there can be no danger from them to a person in front or rearward of a car.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent- An electric-railway system, comprising a closed conduit, a main circuit-wire located therein, contact-plates fixed within the upper portion of the conduit andhaving connection with the main wire, other contact-plates in the conduit between the iirst-named contact-plates, a sectional workingrail between the track-rails, one of the track-rails being in the return-circuit, connections between said other contact-plates and the working rail, contact-strips in the conduit and a permanent magnet carried vby a car, and connected in series with the motor on the car, for moving the strips to contact with the plates, substantially as specified.

BARTON R. SHOVER.

FRANK P. TOVNSEND.

Witnesses to the signature of Barton R. Shover:

CHARLES KooNcE, J r., GEORGE BoUTwELL.

Vitnesses to the signature of Frank P. Townsend:

THEO. G. HosrER, J. L. MoAULiEFE. 

